Yet Again
by farewell-tonight
Summary: Instead of focusing on her trade, Alice gets whisked off to Wonderland...again.  Rated T for possible later violence chapters.  Eventually Alice/Hatter.
1. Arrival

Alice stumbled onto the coastline and emptied her stomach, letting the contents mingle with sea water and sand. For a period of time, Alice had actually nearly believed that silly superstition about women being unlucky on over sea journeys. Alice sighed. She had finally made it to China after a hectic, stressful boat ride. After all this time of dreaming and wishing about China, she made it, yet now she wanted to be at home in London again, with her mother, her sister Margaret, and everyone else she knew. Alice looked at her surroundings. She glanced back at the ship and saw big sweaty men carrying loads to shore. Alice looked the other way, and saw a few Chinese folk gathering around to see the new band of foreigners that had arrived. To Alice, they all looked vaguely similar – all with hair as black as the midnight sky and bottomless black eyes. They were all muttering and whispering a language that Alice didn't understand a word of. Again, she cursed herself for not familiarising herself with the language beforehand.

Alice found herself staring at all the Chinese locals, who were staring back at her. A voice uttered her name, snapping her out of her trance.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Alice turned to face Lord Ascot beaming at her. She smiled back.

"It's just as I imagined! With the rich culture and all the wonderful people here, we must get a good result with our trade!" She was excited.

"Well before you do any thinking about business, we should be meeting our guides by now." Lord Ascot frowned, pulling out his pocket watch and squinting at it. According to their plan, there would be some English speaking locals who would meet the British travellers and escort them to their accommodation as soon as they arrived.

A man's voice came from within the crowd of villagers. Soon, the man managed to squeeze himself out of the crowd, which was still growing.

The Chinese man was tall and you could tell he was muscular even though he wore a Western style business suit and a red necktie.

"Mr Ascot?" He said, and shook the Lord's hand. "I'm Fangwu Jiang. My family will be hosting you during your stay in Hong Kong." This Fangwu man spoke great English, still with a hint of Chinese accent.

"Thank you, Mr Jiang. We shall be heading over now. You are almost an hour late!" Lord Ascot pointed to his pocket watch. Fangwu invited him through the crowd and into a carriage, clearly taking no notice at all of Alice, who was left standing outside the carriage until another man helped her up. Fangwu looked to see who had come into the carriage.

"Mr Ascot, this is…"

"This is Alice Kingsleigh, my apprentice."

Fangwu smiled warmly at Alice. Then he resumed his conversation with Lord Ascot about accommodation and trade companies. _This is going to being a _long_ journey. _Alice sighed and leaned her head against the window frame of the carriage, soon nodding off with the sound of endless droning of the men's voices in her head and the bounce of the horse-drawn carriage.


	2. Dropped Something

Alice woke up, still in the carriage. She opened her eyes to see no one in the carriage but her. She heard bustling outside. Alice peered out of the carriage. She saw the big men again, this time taking the luggage off the carriages and into a house. The house was European style, with a tinge of Chinese flavour to it. She saw Fangwu and Lord Ascot walking along a corridor of the house. Alice guessed that this was the place they would be staying. Alice hopped off the carriage and started wandering around, weaving through the carriages. She almost bumped into two big men, who were carrying a chest.

"Sorry," Alice mumbled. The two men ignored her. Alice continued to wander and day dream. She was thinking about home, in London. This place was so different the place she'd spent her whole life. Why did she want to come in the first place? She was beginning to miss London terribly, and it was only her first day in Hong Kong.

There was a girl coming out of the house. She carried a bucket of dirty water and wore a dull maiden-like dress. The girl kept her eyes on the path in front of her, careful not to trip over the hem of the dress. With that girl not paying attention and Alice also not paying much attention, the girl crashed into Alice, sending murky water over both their dresses. Alice stood with her mouth open in shock, while the Chinese girl got up from the ground quickly, apologising over and over again.

"I'm so sorry; I didn't mean to soak you in floor-scrubbing water! Here, take this as an apology," the girl took something out of her pocket and thrust it into Alice's hands, and then she picked up her bucket and ran off.

Alice opened her palm to see a chain. On the silver chain was a tiny key with delicate carvings on it. It looked almost like a small version of the key to Underland. Alice smiled at this. She tucked it into the pocket of her dress and went into the house.

Fangwu was inside. He looked up and saw Alice. "Hello Miss Kingsley. Mr Ascot is in his room. Your room is the second door on the right down that hallway." He pointed to his left. There were so many doors. Alice gave a quick smile and walked briskly into her room. In there she found all of her luggage already there. She took a change of clothes and shut the door to put them on. As she was changing she could hear voices outside.

"…Well if you got her drenched, you should apologise." Fangwu said.

"But I already have! I've given her my most valued possession!" It was that maid that had bumped into her. "Well, my second most valued." She added.

"Go on!" Fangwu still urged. Alice heard a knock on her door. Thankfully, she had finished changing into a midnight blue dress.

"Come in," Alice said as she pulled her hair back behind her ears. The girl that she'd met before was shoved hastily into the room. Behind her, Alice caught a glimpse of Fangwu scooting away before she could say hello. Alice looked at the girl. This time, she saw her features more clearly. The girl looked about early teens. Her silky black hair was done up into a neat bun, with a rabbit pin holding it in place, instead of draping down the sides of her face. She wasn't wearing the grey dress with holes in it anymore. Instead, she had a green dress on. It was the style that Alice had seen the rich Chinese ladies wear.

The girl looked at the floor. "Sorry again for what happened," she mumbled. Alice could now tell she was no housemaid. She noticed that her English was good, better than Fangwu's. You couldn't tell she was Chinese unless you saw her speaking.

"What's your name?" Alice asked. The girl looked up.

"Do you accept my apology?" She squeaked. Alice smiled at her persistency.

"Yes," she sighed. "You don't have to act like I'm the queen. I'm Alice."

"My name is Lingling Jiang. I am Fangwu's sister," the girl said, now feeling less nervous with Alice. Lingling's lips crept slighty upward with the sound of Alice's name. She was so friendly, unlike the British ladies she'd heard about before.

"Fangwu's sister? But you were scrubbing the floors earlier today!" Alice couldn't believe the daughter of a wealthy family was cleaning the house; surely they had maids for that?

"We do have housemaids, but I like to work amongst them. Strange as it sounds, I've become good friends with them. Hopefully you don't think I'm mad, making friends with maids?"

"Mad? You're absolutely bonkers! Of course, all the best people are," Alice was enjoying the company of Lingling. Alice had so much to learn about this land and these people here. Lingling was the first friend she made in Hong Kong. The two talked until dusk. The scent of their dinner drifted into the room.

"Do mealtimes here always smell this good?" Alice asked as she took a whiff. The smell was irresistible, sort of like the tea and desserts in Underland.

"Dinner? Oh no, I promised the maids I'd prepare it with them! If you'll excuse me, maybe we can talk another day?" Lingling smiled apologetically. Alice nodded a goodbye and Lingling rushed off to the group of maids outside in the kitchen. Just as Lingling got off the bed, Alice noticed that a something had fallen out of her pocket. Alice took one glance at it and gasped. The metal object was a key. It looked exactly like the mini version of itself that Lingling had given her on the silver chain. It also looked identical to what Alice remembered the key to Underland had been like. She grabbed the key and slipped it into her own pocket, hoping no one else had seen it but her and possibly Lingling.


	3. The Pond

Fangwu came in to call Alice to dinner. At the table, she met Lord Ascot and a few people she didn't know, already seated. Alice sat across form Fangwu. Where was Lingling? Alice looked around the table for her when she appeared in the doorway. Alice smiled to her. Lingling looked slightly panicky but managed a forced smile.

"Sorry I'm late," she said and took the empty seat next to Alice. Fangwu and Lord Ascot were chattering away about their trade business again. They brought up the subject of importing keys and locks and suddenly, Alice remembered the key that she found on her bed where Lingling had been sitting. Alice took it out of her pocket and shoved it into Lingling's hand under the table. Lingling looked at what had been thrust into palm and saw the key. Alice felt her tense. She shot a glance up at Alice.

"May we be excused for a moment?" Lingling interrupted the grand conversation that Alice was listening intently to. Without waiting for a reply, Lingling dragged her out of the room and into the garden. They stood behind a shrub.

"Where did you get this?" Lingling asked cautiously, as if not wanting to reveal something by accident. She was clutching the key in her hand. Trust that once lived in her tone was now gone.

"It fell out of your pocket when you left my room," Alice replied swiftly. Lingling couldn't find anything else to say. Alice was telling the truth. "It's the key to Underland, isn't it? It's a land of talking animals and flying cats. It's the key to a land of secrets that no one could possibly share with anybody. Please tell me you understand me? If you don't, I'm sorry. I'm just a mad lunatic girl who can't make sense of anything and-"

"Yes," Lingling cut her off. "It's where I've been rushing off to every now and then. Just before, I wasn't in the kitchen with the maids. I was trying to get _there_. But when I got to the door I realised I lost the key. That's why I was late to dinner."

The silence was disturbing and awkward, until Alice couldn't stand it anymore and broke it. "Can we go there?" she whispered. They looked each other in the eye. Lingling sighed. She slipped the key into her pocket and grabbed Alice's wrist. She pulled her across the garden and to a fish pond. Alice stared at the pond blankly. Why were they at a fish pond?

Lingling felt the rocks at the side of the pond with her hands, stopping at loose-looking one. She twisted the stone and the side of the pond opened up with a hole. Surprisingly, no water came spilling out.

She dropped to her knees and began crawling in. Alice followed, although not quite sure where they were going.

The tunnel became smaller and more cramped. It wasn't until Alice let out a squeak when a tree root got in her hair that Lingling twisted another stone and revealed some pishsalver that was sitting on and uncovered stone ledge.

Both girls took a sip each and shrunk down to ten inches. They ditched their clothes and ripped bits and pieces off their gigantic dresses to cover themselves up. Lingling fished the key out of her giant dress and pointed to a key hole at their current eye level. Together, the girls hoisted the slightly-large key into the slightly-large keyhole. They turned the key and the door opened with a _CRREEAAK_.


	4. Underland

They ran out of the stuffy tunnel and through the door, to Underland. Their feet sunk into the soft green-blue grass as they filled their nostrils with a refreshing helping of Underland air.

"I'm back!" Alice screamed happily. She took off, spinning and jumping, until she bumped into a big tree. She looked up. The tree had two signs attached to it. The signs read "East, Queast" and "South, Snud".

Lingling was running happily after Alice. She bumped into Alice, who was studying the signs. "Where to?" Alice asked. She turned around and looked at Lingling.

"You've been here before, haven't you? To Marmoreal!" Lingling ran ahead.

"But where is Marmoreal?" Alice couldn't remember the way there. The last time she was taken there by Bayard the bloodhound, but she was asleep half the time. Lingling also stopped to consider this.

"That's true. What about the Hare and the Hatter?" Lingling sprinted energetically in the other direction. She paused to see if Alice was coming, just to see Alice fly ahead of her with a huge grin on her face.

"Race you there!"

Alice and Lingling ended up walking through the forest, even though the plan was to 'race' each other there. The girls shared stories about their Adventures in Underland. It turned out that Lingling's first adventure to Underland was when she was five. She'd slipped when she was by the fish pond and turned the stone by accident. With a curious nature much like Alice's, Lingling crawled through the tunnel and ended up in Underland. She had a great first visit and was determined to come again, so every year she would crawl through the tunnel and pay Underland a visit.

It all made sense to Alice now; how Lingling had smiled when they'd first exchanged names. Lingling was reminded about Underland's champion when she first heard Alice's name, and that's why she smiled. By such a coincidence, Alice _was _the champion.

The girls reached the small path that led to the Mad Tea Party. As they stepped out of the bushes, they heard nothing but snoring. Alice shook her head and smiled as they neared the table. They stared at the March Hare, who was twitching in his deep slumber. As usual, the Mad Hatter hung his head low, and the dormouse was nowhere to be seen.

Lingling stamped a foot on the table playfully after they successfully climbed up the table cloth. Both girls giggled as the trio of lunatics awakened and set their wandering eyes on the girls. The Hatter leaned forward in his seat, wide-eyed and smiling. He got up and trudged across the table toward Alice and Lingling. He then knelt down and frowned when he saw two very different girls that he both knew together. It was definitely the least of his impossible expectations that Alice and Lingling would be there together. But the mad man's frown quickly resumed a grin.

"You…two," he stated pointlessly.

"So; a surprise, Hatter?" Lingling asked casually. Alice looked up at the grin on the giant man's face. The Hatter seemed to be frozen in thought for a few seconds, then hastily grabbed the two girls' arms and pulled them back across the tea table.

"As you can see, we're still having tea. You're terribly late, naughty," he planted them down at two seats, one on each side of him. The man poured tea into cups and plonked the swimming pool sized teacups next to each of the girls.

"You're all late for TEA!" Thackery the March Hare sent six cups flying in the direction of the three humans.

"We are so very glad you are back, Alice. Are we not?" he looked to Thackery and Mallymkun, who had just started devouring the scones. The two mad companions paused, looking up, nodded vigorously, and continued with the scones.

"Now that you're _both_ back, we must begin our celebrating of Frabjous Day!" The Hatter, Thackery, and Mally all grinned widely and clapped their hands.

Alice felt happy that all three lunatics were content with her return. She thought that Mally would be shooting her piercing looks, but everything was fine. Everything was normal in the usual crazy, mad way.


	5. Marmoreal

Alice and Lingling were both shrunk down to minuscule size again. They and Mally were sitting, dangling their feet off the rim of the huge top hat to meet a wild orange fizz beneath them. Thackery was hopping along beside them, and the Hatter was of course walking to Marmoreal with the three on his head.

"Please continue with _your_ story, Lingling," Alice said. She wanted to know more about Lingling's adventures in Underland. So far on their journey to Marmoreal, the Hatter, Thackery, Mally, and Alice had been filling Lingling in on the Champion's story of her first ever visit to Underland. She was amazed at how their stories were so much alike.

"Well, I used to—" Lingling began, but was at once cut off by yet another sudden mad chorus.

"_Twinkle, twinkle little bat; how I wonder where you're at. Up above the world so high, like a tea tray in the sky…"_

Lingling waited patiently for the song to end. It was the twelfth interruption of the journey, even though all five of them were participating in the conversation.

"Ah yes, the defea' of the bluddy behg hid," the Hatter sighed in satisfaction, a hint of carefully controlled Scottish accent slipping into his words. "Tha' dir'y ol' rat. She'd never do 'ny good! Even if she was dead! But I'm sure her sister wouldn't like that; the White Queen's too soft and – "

"Hatter!" Alice said with a giggle.

"As I was saying—" Lingling continued impatiently, but was interrupted again by Thackery, who finished off her sentence.

"She used te be the bluddy behg hid's champion!" He cried. Alice met Thackery's insane eyes for a moment, then swivelled to gaze into Lingling's eyes, horrified.

"Yes," she shifted uncomfortably. "I _used_ to be her champion. It was when I first came here. I strayed off to Salazen Grum and she took me in. She realised that my amateur martial arts that I learnt off my brother could come in handy, so she made me Champion."

"What about now?" Alice was now a little scared of Lingling. All sorts of strange thoughts flashed through her head. What if Lingling was still following the Red Queen? What if she suddenly betrayed them?

"Don't worry, I eventually got my head right and joined the White side," Lingling gave Alice a playful punch. Alice still looked slightly uncertain.

"It's true! If you don't believe her, I do. She even helped getting the bluddy behg hid back to the Outlands after you left. Absolem's right, you _are_ a stupid girl," Mally defended Lingling. After that, Alice decided to let go. If even _Mally_, who never agrees with anyone, agreed, then she was definitely not lying.

"We have arrived at Marmoreal!" the Hatter announced as they came over the last hill. There, in front of the five, stood a white castle, gleaming in the sun of Underland. Alice and Lingling slid off the Hatter's hat and onto the grass. The Hatter and the March Hare averted their eyes while the girls nibbled on upelkuchen and tore off their tiny dresses. They took the normal sized dresses that the Hatter was now holding out to them backwards. They quickly got dressed and marched off together to the castle of White Royalty.

"How was your day today? I hope you've convinced the cherry blossom to teach you her technique of flowering." Alice heard the soft, gentle voice of Mirana. As they rounded the corner, they saw the White Queen, elegant as ever, perched on a bench, talking to the two trees in front of her. The five remained silent for two seconds, then Lingling couldn't help but scream out the queen's name. The white-blonde woman flicked her head around. She stood up and ran towards the visitors, a wide smile spread across her pale face.

"How are you, love?" The queen took each of the five travellers in an embrace, placing a friendly kiss on each of their cheeks. She then turned back to Alice,

"Our Champion had returned."

"How've you been, Your Majesty?" Alice said.

"We've all been well. And please don't bother with silly titles, Mirana's just fine. There's been almost no harm done in Underland. The only time so far was when Iracebeth tried to throw a rebellion. Thankfully, Lingling was here to relieve you that time as it was so sudden."

Alice saw Thackery and the Hatter nodding their heads up and down violently with serious-looking faces. Lingling cheeks had turned bright red at all the nodding.

Suddenly, Alice smiled. She didn't know why she was smiling, but when she saw her companions agreeing so strongly, or maybe it was how ridiculous they looked when their heads went up and down in a blur. She even felt like laughing when her eyes fell on the Hatter. It's true; he was mad, but he always acted like that. Why were her spirits suddenly up and floating around when she saw him in such a…way? The feeling wasn't ordinary like laughing at a clown. The Hatter made her tingle in a strange way.

Feeling slightly out of place with the silence, Mirana motioned for the assortment of beings to come into the castle.

"I'm sure you've all had a long and tiring day. Why don't you make yourself at home? I'll ask the maids to get you all a cup of tea and a change of clothes." She turned elegantly and glided off gracefully through the doors of the big white castle before them.


	6. Visit

"We have just received noticed of Iracebeth in the Outlands."

There was a sharp intake of breath as the court fell silent at Mirana's words. It was the morning of Alice and Lingling's second day in Underland. The travellers all had their rest and were ready to take on whatever was coming next. Taking what the White Queen had just said, it wasn't going to be simple if it involved Iracebeth.

"My sister has fallen terribly ill in her banishment. I plan to visit her and stay with her until she gets well."

The whole room of white-clothed courtiers started whispering to their peers. Lingling shifted uncomfortably and knocked into Alice, who was frowning at the queen's words. The Mad Hatter clenched his fists, eyes instantly blazing orange. Clearly, no one was happy with this idea. Nevertheless, Mirana persisted with her plan, ignoring the bad remarks.

"I would like to set off tomorrow. I will take five hundred knights with me and that is it. Of course, our heroes Alice and Lingling will come too." That was that. No one would be changing her mind.

Alice glanced up at the White Queen. She sat upon her throne, elegant as ever. No one could guess that she was even a little bit fretful about her sister; no one but Alice. Alice could tell she was worried to death. She knew that the queen always had a great relationship with everyone, especially Racie, until the bloody big head decided _she_ wanted the throne. The sisters were dragged farther and farther apart by Iracebeth's selfishness.

The Hatter made his way up to the queen's throne, his eyes a bright orange.

"Mirana, I don't understand." He said angrily.

"She is my sister, no matter how much harm she has done to anyone." She kept her elegant posture and her eyes in front at the court.

"She tried to come back and kill you!" the Hatter's voice lowered. He waited for a reply, but the queen didn't utter another sound. He slowly made his way back down to his place next to Alice. On the way, he turned back to face the White Queen.

"At least let me come. I want to make sure that the bluddy behg hid doesn't hurt…someone."

By then the whole room was silent. Alice gaped in shock at what this crazy man had said. Again, she felt something when he was angry. It was different to the first time. It also made her somewhat angry. No, maybe it was…sympathy? Sadness?

And then again, who was the someone? Was it the White Queen? There were so many questions buzzing around in Alice's brain waiting to be answered.

Lingling also stood silently. She sensed something going on in Alice beside her. When she turned to look, Alice had a certain look on her face. She had seen that look before, but she couldn't be sure where.


End file.
